St John's College Kendrew Songwriting Prize 2026

For the fifth year running, St John’s is again offering its Kendrew Prize, the College's annual award for songwriting. Two awards will be given: a £500 first prize and a £250 second prize. Submissions in any genre, style, tradition, or language are eligible. The submitted song must be original (covers are not permitted) and must not have won a prize in another competition.

You can find info on winners from past years on these pages: 2025; 2024; 2023; 2022.

Eligibility

This competition is open to any current University of Oxford student (undergraduate or postgraduate in any course of study). Co-written songs are eligible, although all members of the songwriting team must be currently enrolled at the University of Oxford.

Application Process

The application form can be submitted by clicking on the following link (note that you will need to use your SSO to access the form):

https://forms.office.com/e/NCURnEyjgA

The following application materials should be submitted by Friday, 15 May 2026 at 12:00 noon:

• A stereo MP3 or WAV file of ONE recorded original song of no longer than SIX MINUTES in duration;
• A 500-word description of the song, including relevant information about performers, instrumentation, place of recording, technology used, etc;
• The full lyrics of the song, including a translation if the song is composed and performed in a language (or languages) other than English.
• Please note that late submissions will not be accepted.
• Submissions will be reviewed by Sarah Hill (Associate Professor of Popular Music at the Faculty of Music and Fellow and Tutor at St Peter's College), Samuel Boateng (Career Development Research Fellow in Music at St John's College), and Jason Stanyek (Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at the Faculty of Music and Fellow and Tutor at St John’s College).